Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho on Next Season of The Amazing Race Lance Bradley | July 21, 2009 at 1:10 pm

Maria Ho apparently waiting at LAX as filming for The Amazing Race began on July 15. (RealityFanForum photo)It appears that Jean-Robert Bellande and Annie Duke may soon have some company when it comes to pro poker players making a name for themselves on a reality television series.

Sources close to CBS have confirmed that the upcoming season of The Amazing Race will include two professional female poker players playing as a team but would not confirm the identities of those players.

A forum poster at RealityFanForum.com may have done that already having recently snapped photos of contestants as the race began and one of those photos clearly showed Maria Ho. Her partner on the race is rumored to be Tiffany Michelle whose recent decision to preclude herself from the World Series of Poker Main Event however put her at the top of the list of the suspects.

On her blog just before the start of the Main Event Michelle wrote Itd have to be something pretty big to deter me from the WSOP Championship Event this year and trust me, IT IS! I cant disclose much right now but Ill be leaving to film a project for a month and it conflicts with the Main Event. This project and my part are very huge and its an opportunity is just too good to pass up. At the end of the day, acting and performing have always been my passion, in fact its how I fell into poker to begin with and I never want to lose sight of that part of my life and career.

Pre-production filming for The Amazing Race began July 12 in Los Angeles with the actual race beginning July 15. Michelle has not sent out a tweet since July 13 when she let the world know she was filming a project.

Couple days into filming & Im having a blast, lovin the cast & crew but remembering how long filming days can be. Love being back on set!, wrote the last woman standing from the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Michelle or Ho however may not have been the first choice of the shows producers.

Back on May 14, Evelyn Ng posted on her Twitter account that she had been preparing for a spot on a reality TV series only to find out that Canadians werent eligible to participate.

spent 2 days preparing to be cast for a reality show (it was in the bag), only to find out that Canadians arent elligible. FML it was a big network reality show, wrote Ng. According to the official application form only American citizens living in the United States are eligible.

This news came shortly after Bellande, who appeared on CBS Survivor in 2007, posted on 2+2 indicating that friends of his were looking to cast two female poker players for an upcoming reality show. Some believe that Ng was one of the original choices of producers as was Lacey Jones.

Rumors are flying as to the identities of the two poker players who will be appearing on CBS's reality show "The Amazing Race'. When CBS announced two poker players would be appearing --but refused to divulge their identities-- the poker community focused its collective power of observation to the task of uncovering the two poker players selected.

A poster for the upcoming season has one cast member, who has a striking resemblance to Maria Ho. UPDATE: The picture is of Maria Ho waiting to start the race. The alleged photo was taken at LAX according to a member of RealityFanForum.com.

Furthermore, Ho's friend, Tiffany Michelle's (who missed the WSOP for what she called, "an opportunity she couldn't pass up") Twitter and Facebook pages have her on set for the next month, but she hasn't divulged the set!

With the recent success of poker players on reality shows --Jean Robert Bellande on Survivor, and Annie Duke's show-stealing Celebrity Apprentice run-- it's no wonder The Amazing Race chose to showcase two more poker players: Not to mention both Tiffany and Maria are easy on the eyes, which is a big part of the Amazing Race's appeal.

So, while nothing is official, it appears that Tiffany and Maria will be away from the tables for a spell.

It seems that a relative of one of the women I know from Stony Brook U is in Tokyo Japan. The woman said that two pairs of Amazing Racers had run past the relative. Didn't say where or what they were doing, so it's not quite a true spoiler. And there were pix, but not shared. Also, she's a Big Brother fan who despises TAR. ()

That got me thinking: with the wireless technology and the prevalence of Twitter worldwide, can anyone hide anything anymore? In the case of Amazing Race, the TAR Detectives get such incredible detail on everything, long before anything airs. I don't read spoilers until it airs, but I'm sure Chateau has the airport covered and the camera angles figured, Apskip's got the flight numbers and arrival times, and Neobie's got the leg mapped out. It's incredible. But fortunately, they're fans. They love the show and they're sane (as far as any fanship is 'sane'...) Think what would happen in the hands of people who are, er, less supportive and less sane, like, say, someone who's stalking a star, or trying to undermine a rival, not to mention terrorists or spys or Big Brother fans. Go to a mountain in Tibet, some monk's Twittering from the next mountain over. Or a tundra location in Yakutia in Siberia -- the bears have their own YouTube accounts. The amount of evidence can be astounding, and that makes chasing it down for a live event so much fun.

But it's also just a bit scary. Technology has redefined privacy in a way that makes it impossible to hold as a near-absolute right above all else. It has become what it really was all along - a right to be held in the context of all other rights, and defended as such. And it is dealt with in the breach more than in fact, in typical human fashion. How to handle it from there, I don't know. Posted by Bob Longman at 7/23/2009 04:46:00 AM

The 15th season of The Amazing Race is currently being produced, so its cast has not yet officially been revealed. But as the race started, some of the teams were photographed and subsequently identified, and among its cast members are two professional poker players, two members of the Harlem Globtrotters, and a former Miss America.

Reality Fan Forum has done an amazing job of stalking and identifying the cast based on cell phone photos and other information from the start of the race, which apparently began in the Los Angeles River (yet another L.A. start for the race).

Using photos of cast members at the airport, they’ve named, with pretty high degrees of certainty, a number of cast members. Those include Miss America 2004 Ericka Dunlap and her husband Brian Kleinschmidt, Harlem Globetrotters Nate “Big Easy” Lofton and Herbert “Flight Time” Lang, and pro poker players Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle.

Bluff magazine reported on the poker player team, running down the evidence, including that they were photographed at LAX on July 15, when the race was expected to begin, and Michelle stopped using Twitter July 13 after blogging that she is skipping the World Series of Poker championship because “I’ll be leaving to film a project for a month and it conflicts with the Main Event.” However, she also wrote that “acting and performing have always been my passion,” and one would hope being on TAR doesn’t involve any acting.

If all of these check out, and they seem to, there are a lot of relatively well-known or medium-profile contestants on a single season, particularly since so many of them are performers, which may suggest some kind of themed casting. Adding to that, a report on Reality Fan Forum says that one team is a lesbian couple who are synchronized swimmers in a Cirque de Soleil show (O?) in Las Vegas.>>not currently thought to be correct (peach)

Jul 19, 2009 Spoilers abound only one day after the 15th cycle of CBS's The Amazing Race began in Los Angeles. Who's competing? Where are they going? Find out all the details below.

Can’t wait until the end of September to watch The Amazing Race? Then you’ve come to the right place! An unprecedented amount of information has already been obtained about the fifteenth edition of CBS’s popular reality show, which began on the morning of July 18th from an industrial district in Los Angeles. From the starting line to the first destination to some of the teams’ identities, the information is starting to leak thanks to the amazing detective work of dedicated fans at Reality Fan Forum and the flood of posts on Twitter by excited witnesses who saw the teams on the first day of filming.

Please click to read the rest of the story here!! Credits to both caper and Chateau included :

I didn't know this had such a great interest of everyone! I know it is a huge job the one you're doing! That's being great! Congrats to everyone doing it, making us enjoy and be interested in TAR15!! You're in the news!!!!!!!!! :ele:

Aug 1, 2009 Now that The Amazing Race 15 is half over, here's a look at everything we know so far from who's racing to where they're going and what they'll be doing there.

The Amazing Race 15 began from the Sixth Street Viaduct in Los Angeles nearly two weeks ago. Over the course of those two weeks, sightings of the racers have sprung up all over the map, from Tokyo to Dubai, and more of the racers’ identities have been unveiled. See below for a summary of everything that’s known about the race, which is expected to conclude in the next 8-10 days

"Tiffany Michelle"July 30, 2009We have all heard of the TV show “The Amazing Race”. Promise people an obscene amount of money and watch them travel all over the globe in a quest to win it. Well on September 27th, when the 15th instalment of the CBS reality show kicks off, ex-PokerNews presenter and infamous poker “pro”, Tiffany Michelle will be part of the series! The Ultimate Bet Pro will need to have all of her best poker wits about her if she is going to take home the big prize! PokerNetwork can confirm that Michelle is among the cast for the TV show which has been extremely popular in the US, even winning an Emmy.

The rumours going around at the moment suggest that Michelle will team up with Maria Ho on this fantastic race around the globe. CBS has not released the cast of characters who will battle against the duo on the “Amazing Race.”

Michelle and Ho apart from having spectacular surnames when put together, represent the Last Women Standing in the 2008 and 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Events, respectively. Michelle, known in the poker world as “Hot Chips,” (allegedly due to her fetish with the traditional English snack) scored a very pleasurable $334,000 for her 17th place finish in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. I am sure you will agree that it is not her play that stuck in the hearts and minds of poker fans worldwide but more the situation when she called the clock in a key hand at a vital stage of the tournament featuring Scott Montgomery and Paul Snead.

Montgomery had moved in with A 4 after a flop of J 3 10 against Snead’s J 7 . It would cost Snead a decent chunk of his stack to make the call and because of this was an extremely crucial moment for both players Michelle, who appeared somewhat ambivalent of the player’s situation, called the clock and Snead called Montgomery, only to be a victim of an ace on the river. November Nine member Craig Marquis quipped, “Really not cool” to Michelle after the hand was over.

Ho earned $237,000 for her 38th place in the 2007 WSOP Main Event. She has been back in the spot light this year after finishing a very commendable 11th in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Limit Hold’em during the WSOP for a very tidy $41,000.

In case you have been living under a rock since 2001, “The Amazing Race” is one of reality television’s most well-known brands. This year, Phil Keoghan (The Host) is nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program.

In previous seasons,“The Amazing Race” has had first prizes of up to a million dollars! The show works quite simply, teams of two race around the world and attempt to beat their competitors and pass some challenges on the way. At the end of the majority of legs, the last team to arrive is eliminated. Last season, countries visited included Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Romania, Russia, India, Thailand, and China. The contestants travelled over 64,000km and, in the end, siblings Tammy and Victor crossed the finish line first in Hawaii.

Reportedly joining Michelle and Ho on the show is a host of exciting stars from all facets of the entertainment industry; they are believe to include two Harlem Globetrotters, Miss America 2004, and a lesbian Cirque de Soleil couple appearing on show.

Does Tiffany Michelle have what it takes to take down the big prize? We’ll certainly keep an eye on her progress when the new series gets underway on the 27th of September!

The fifteenth edition of CBS’s popular reality competition The Amazing Race came to a dramatic finish on August 7th. Internet sleuths, together with excited fans and witnesses, had been busy trying to follow the race as it progressed over the last month, using everything from Twitter sightings and blog posts to piece together the race course and the identities of eliminated teams. Now that the race is over, the amount of information they’ve compiled is so vast that an unprecedented number of spoilers is known about the show two months before it will begin airing.

Please click here to read the rest of this excellent summary which credits VegasSinner, artlover33 and iamagnest:

There is a mysterious twelfth team that is still unknown. It is believed that this team is co-ed, although this is unconfirmed. The relationship of the team members is also undetermined. They may be vegans.

Poker Players on Reality TV: Good or Bad for the Game?By Dan Cypra for POKER NEWS DAILY | Posted on August 18, 2009

Several poker superstars have joined the cast of reality shows in recent years. Bodog pro Jean-Robert Bellande was a castaway on the CBS reality hallmark “Survivor.” Annie Duke finished as the runner-up to Joan Rivers on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice.” Now, Tiffany Michelle will likely join Maria Ho on “Amazing Race.” Poker News Daily sat down with former PokerStars Marketing Director Dan Goldman to discuss whether these appearances are beneficial or hurtful to the game.

Poker News Daily: What are your thoughts on Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho appearing on the 15th installment of CBS’ “Amazing Race”?

Goldman: These are two interesting characters. Tiffany is controversial, but I don’t think that makes her appearance negative. She’s controversial, but not despised, which could make for interesting television. My personal sense is that among people who know what’s going on with Ultimate Bet, I’m not sure there’s not a lot that can be done to rehabilitate the site’s image. One of the advantages of shows like “Amazing Race” is that they’re reaching an audience wider than poker and that’s what Ultimate Bet needs.

Goldman: Annie is tightly associated with poker. Tiffany and Maria have their own aura that potentially transcends poker. They are two young, attractive women and will be a bit more interesting to a wider audience than Annie. They are, for the most part, unknown outside of poker.

PND: Tiffany Michelle is a member of Team UB. Is there any downside to the online poker site for her to appear on the show?

Goldman: I don’t think there’s a downside for Ultimate Bet. What’s the worst thing that could happen? It’s not like people are going to flee Ultimate Bet because her team didn’t act well. Their worst-case scenario for Ultimate Bet is that nothing happens. The best-case scenario is that a new audience will learn about them.

PND: Do you plan to watch “Amazing Race” when it debuts on September 27th on CBS?

Goldman: I watched the first season of the show and sort of liked it. I’m not a big fan of reality shows in general. If I watched one, it’d be this because it’s the best of an uninteresting brand of television. I’m obviously in the minority here, but the fact that a poker player is on it doesn’t affect me.

PND: When you were with PokerStars, was there any talk of using reality television as a marketing vehicle for your players?

Goldman: We talked about it, but briefly. We always stayed fairly close to poker. We did talk at length about doing a reality show centered on poker or one that had significant components of poker. We talked about doing a “Big Brother”-type show with a handful of poker players and a handful of people who were smart, but weren’t poker players. The goal was see if we could educate a non-poker crowd. We investigated it and there was some interest from networks, but not enough for them to fund development. It would have been a significant expense.

PND: What was the feedback you received from networks?

Goldman: It was poker and this was in 2004. Their feeling was if the show had poker, they wanted to hear about it. At least one of the networks was willing to do it as a partnership, but we decided that there were other ways to invest the millions of dollars that would have had more impact. PokerStars was a much different company back then than it is now.

PND: ESPN.com releases a weekly poker news show, “Inside Deal,” with Bernard Lee and Laura Lane that is sponsored by PokerStars. Have you watched it?

Goldman: It’s not bad. I think there’s a lot more they could do with it. If I were doing it, the show would be in smaller doses and more like “Entertainment Weekly.” It’d be a 15 minute show with short two to four minute segments, but it’s interesting. Bernard Lee is better than I thought he would be.

PND: Do you think there’s a market for a show like “Inside Deal” on television?

Goldman: I don’t think there’s a broad enough audience. If you did it once or twice a week for 15 minutes, it could attract an audience if you figured out where to put it. The show probably should tag along with a World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker episode. Stuff like this does better online and has longer legs. If it can be promoted properly, it has a lot of potential.

There is actually no typo on the CBS PressExpress page. It clearly says that TAR15 premieres on September 27, 2009. Where it says Premiere: Sept. 5, 2001, there are referring to the premiere of the entire series which was of course 9/5/2001.

There is actually no typo on the CBS PressExpress page. It clearly says that TAR15 premieres on September 27, 2009. Where it says Premiere: Sept. 5, 2001, there are referring to the premiere of the entire series which was of course 9/5/2001.

This makes so much sense.

Logged

"The Amazing Race shows the best and worst out of you. But if only negative things are shown, then it's probably you. - Jobby"

There is actually no typo on the CBS PressExpress page. It clearly says that TAR15 premieres on September 27, 2009. Where it says Premiere: Sept. 5, 2001, there are referring to the premiere of the entire series which was of course 9/5/2001.

I get it now - they mean the "PREMIER premier"...

Notice that the more times you say the word "premier" it stops sounding like a word?